The present invention relates to a liquid crystal device, a method of manufacturing the liquid crystal device and an electronic apparatus and more particularly, a liquid crystal device in which a plurality of columnar spacers for maintaining a gap between two substrates is provided.
There is a liquid crystal device (liquid crystal panel) in which a plurality of columnar spacers for maintaining a gap (cell gap) between two substrates. In such a liquid crystal panel, the strength (surface pressing strength) when external force is applied to the liquid crystal panel in a thickness direction needs to be improved and vacuum bubbles need to be prevented from being generated because the cell gap cannot be shrunk by the shrinkage of liquid crystal.
However, in order to improve the surface pressing strength, if the density of the columnar spacers is increased by increasing the number of columnar spacers, it is difficult to shrink the cell gap. Thus, vacuum bubbles are susceptible to be generated.
As a technology of solving this problem, there is a liquid crystal panel in which a cell gap is maintained by thicknesses of two stages depending on whether or not external force is applied to the liquid crystal panel in the thickness direction (for example, Japanese Patent No. 3925142, JP-A-2003-84289 and JP-A-2006-330470). In such a liquid crystal panel, when the external force is not applied to the liquid crystal panel in the thickness direction, a thick cell gap is maintained by the columnar spacers having a large height. When the force is applied to the display crystal panel in the thickness direction, the columnar spacers having the large height are deformed and the buckling of the columnar spacers having the large height is prevented by columnar spacers having a small height, thereby maintaining a small cell gap. Accordingly, if the columnar spacers having different heights are mixed in a liquid crystal layer, the surface pressing strength is higher than that of the case where the columnar spacers having the small height are not provided.
In the liquid crystal panel in which the columnar spacers having the different heights are mixed in the liquid crystal layer, when liquid crystal molecules are shrunk under a low-temperature environment, only the columnar spacers having the large height are deformed by the shrinkage of the liquid crystal. Accordingly, in such a liquid crystal panel, it the number of columnar spacers is the same, the cell gap is susceptible to be shrunk by the shrinkage of the liquid crystal compared with the liquid crystal panel in which the heights of the columnar spacers are the same. Thus, it is possible to prevent vacuum bubbles from being generated.
However, if the columnar spacers having the different heights are manufactured, a process of manufacturing the columnar spacers is complicated. Accordingly, there is a need for improvement of productivity.
In the existing liquid crystal device, the liquid crystal is dripped onto a substrate on which an annular seal material is provided without a liquid crystal injection hole, and two substrates are adhered to each other so as to form a liquid crystal layer. In this case, since the amount of liquid crystal dripped is low, the amount of liquid crystal sealed is low, and vacuum bubbles are susceptible to be generated when the pressure in the liquid crystal layer is negative pressure. Accordingly, in the existing liquid crystal device, an optimal dripping amount range of a liquid crystal dripping at the time of forming the liquid crystal layer should narrow. Accordingly, it is difficult to improve productivity.